The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1887-10-29
TORTURE OF FL0GGING.
A FEATURE OF THE OLD SYSTEM OF
PENAL SERvITUDE IN SIBERIA.

PENAL sERVTUoE IN SIBERIA.
Heating Prisoners Within an Inch of Life
= Two Thousand Strokes without
misunderstanding the GauntIet--How
Wretch Is Sometimes Deceived.
One o, the most frghtful features of tho
old sys EN- o, penal servitudo in Siberia
say twenty-five years ago-was fogging l
don't ii INK it is quite abolished even yet,
q though it is supposed to be, but at that time
running tho gauntlet, beating with stick
and lirch rods were Of everyday occurs
renee Prisoners were not only beaten to
enfor. Q discipline, but as a part of their
punishment convicts being sentenced to so
many years hard labor and to receive SO
many 'strokei-sometime 1000 No man,
however, could receive 1900 strokes and
i've. When the victim had been beaten lit
orally within an inch of his life and the
surgeon who stood by on these OCCASIONS
testified that the man could stand no more,
he was released, taken to the hospital, and
when strong enough received the balance
oil his sentence, or 80 much of it as he could
bear. Political prisoners and men of gentle
birth were exempt from corporal punish
ment, the victims being invariably murder
ers and other malefactors
AS may be supposed, convicts have a
great horror of being logged; they gener-
ally contrive to get half-drunk before under
going the ordeal, and will do almost any
thing to obtain a few days grace. Dosto-
jevsky mentions one poor wretch who feared
his punishm mt so much that on the eve of
the fatal day he swallowed tumbler Of
brandy mixed with snuff. Seized at once
with violent vomiting and hemorrhage the
miserable man was taken to the hospital
which he never left again. He die1 six
months later of consumption. But not all
prisoners are pusillanimous Some display
a Spartan-lilSe fortitude, and it is said that
nfter several beatings a mans back gets
hardened and he suffers much less than
those whose hides are more susceptible to
first impressions. / do not suppose, though,
that use so far becomes a second nature that
Siberian convicts find flogging enjoyable.
TOOK 1000 STROKES WITHOUT FLINcHING.
Dostojevsky tells of one fellow, named
Orlof, who took 1000 strokes without
finching. But he was an altogether phenom-
email creature-a monster in human form.
Perhaps under other circumstances he might
have been Napoleon and fought battles
for his own pleasure; as it was he had been
a brigand, and murdered old men and
young children to crafty his thirst for
blood
Three sorts of corporal punishment were
in vogue in Dostojevsky's time, as have
already mentioned, but whereas the pains
Of the stick and the birch rod were inflicted
as part Of the culprit's sentence, running the
gauntlet was penalty for violation of
prison discipline ordered at the discretion
and depending on the caprice of the prison
director, who, whatever might be his rank,
was invariably known as the major. Strange
fO fka of thnua fa11Ofcb1nal1fe yoc
the birching. A very strong man (OrloR was
slightly built could stand, on occasion,
1900 blows Of the stick, yet nobody could
stand more than 500 strokes with the
birch rod; not such a rod as was welded by
our grandmothers, but formidable weapon
piled by a convict chosen for his strength of
arm. The difference in the effects of the
rod and the stick was nevertheless not so
much owing to the way in which they were
used as to the action of the former on the
nervous centers The bundle of twigs
might not hurt so much at the time, but
every twig that came in contact with the
flesh inflicted a separate blow, thereby i'm
plicating far greater number of nerves
1t may be mentioned that the victims of
both sorts Of punishment were logged while
lying on the ground.
Running the gauntlet, or the "green
lane" as the convicts called it, was also
terrible punishment Two rows of soldiers,
each of whom was armed with stick, were
formed, and the culprit's hands being fast
ened to two muskets, he was slowly
dragged between the ranks, and every sol
der had to give a blow with all his
strength on the wretch's hare back An
officer stood by carefully watching, and
woe botide tha man who did not strike with
sufficient vigor. He was himself made to
march down the green lane.
pECEtvING A MISERABLE WRETCH.
Il was the custom for q convict when the
half-naked and trembling wretch was about
to be dragged down the green lane, to i'm
plore the officer t, have mercy on him-not
to let the soldiers BEAT him too severely; aud
when q certain Lieut.. JerebjatniSoff was in
command he would pretend to listen favor
ably TO the petition and promise to be rs
tender as he could, consistently with his
duty to the state He would even go further
and pref SO that, albeit he was SHINING
against lhs law, he would not be hard, il
the culprit ON his honor would undertake to
behave better for the future.
"Most high-born,n cries the wretch, 81
promise with all my heart swear before
the Creator
@We1, well; think | r,ax~sislative
Hoa seem emf tra5 sussex or Kent. ..
Nhf'i J